The CBSE board has dropped several topics including those on democracy and diversity, Mughal courts, and poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz from the syllabus
Image used for representational purposes. PTI
Students belonging to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will now not be taught about the Non-Alignment Movement, the Cold War era, the rise of Islamic empires in Afro-Asian territories, the chronicles of Mughal courts, and the industrial revolution, as these topics have been dropped from the CBSE Class 10, 11 and 12 syllabus.
The move has evoked very strong reactions from politicians as well as educationists, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi calling the national level board of education ‘Central Board of Suppressing Education’.
Here’s a better understanding of what the CBSE syllabus changes are and how people have reacted to it.
Dropped from curriculum
Different chapters in different grades have been dropped from the syllabus.
In the Class 10 syllabus, the topic ‘impact of globalisation on agriculture’ from a chapter on ‘Food Security’ has been dropped.
Also, two excerpts from the translations of Urdu poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz have also been dropped from the section ‘Religion, Communalism and Politics — Communalism, Secular State’.
One of the deleted verse is from Faiz’s famous poem Aaj bazar mai pa-ba-jaula chalo. The other verse that has been omitted is from his poem Dhaka Se Wapsi Par (On Returning from Dhaka), written in 1974 after his visit to Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1974.
In addition to this, the CBSE also announced that in the segment on religion, communalism and politics for Class 10, the images on page 46, 48 and 49 would be excluded.
The images referred to are two posters and a political cartoon.
One of the posters, illustrated with Faiz’s verses, was issued by NGO ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy), which has social activists Shabnam Hashmi and Harsh Mander among its co-founders, reports the Indian Express.
Chapters on ‘democracy and diversity’, which introduced students to the concept of social divisions and inequalities along the lines of race and caste across the world, including in India, have been dropped from the syllabus as well.
Changes have also been introduced in the Class 11 syllabus. The board has decided to forego the chapter ‘Central Islamic Lands’ from the history textbooks. This chapter dealt with the rise of Islamic empires in the Afro-Asian territories and its implications for economy and society.
Similarly, in the Class 12 history syllabus, the chapter — ‘The Mughal Court: Reconstructing Histories through Chronicles’ — that examined the Mughal courts and the social, religious and cultural history of the Mughals, has been omitted.
A chapter on ‘Cold war era and Non-aligned Movement’ has also been dropped from the Class 12 Political Science curriculum.
Why the changes?
When asked why these modifications had been made, officials said that they were “part of the syllabus rationalisation process and were in line with NCERT recommendations.”
“CBSE annually provides curriculum for Classes 9 to 12 containing academic content, syllabus for examinations with learning outcomes, pedagogical practices and assessment guidelines. Considering the feedback of stakeholders and other prevailing conditions, the board is in favour of conducting the annual scheme of assessment at the end of the academic session 2022-23 and the curriculum has been designed accordingly,” PTI quoted a senior board official.
Angry reactions
After the CBSE announced the changes to its syllabus, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi criticised the board and took to Twitter to voice his dismay.
In his tweet, he called the board ‘Rashtriya Shiksha Shredder’.
Bihar education minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, who belongs to the Janata Dal (United), an ally of the BJP, also found the changes to be undesirable.
“We know about old issues only because we read history, there is no justification for removing these chapters from the CBSE syllabi,” Chaudhary said, PTI reported.
Others on Twitterverse also questioned the changes.
Another said that the changes made no sense on academic grounds.
Not the first time
The recent syllabi change isn’t the only time that the CBSE has received flak for its alterations.
In 2020, a major controversy had erupted when CBSE said that chapters on demonetisation, federalism, citizenship, nationalism, and secularism in the Class 11 political science textbook would not be considered while assessing students even though schools were given the freedom to teach the same if they wished.
The topics were then restored in the 2021-22 academic session and remain a part of the curriculum.
In 2012, the NCERT had agreed to drop six cartoons from the Political Science textbooks of Classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 following outrage over “anti-political class” content.
With inputs from agencies
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